Best _cheap_ fertilizer for zone 8?

[JohnAndSancho]

TLDR: What's a budget friendly fertilizer I can use on small palms and seedlings and bananas and tropicals? 2 pounds isn't going to last me very long this time. 

Okie doke - I used Carl Pool in the past because it was recommended for Texas palms, although everything was in pots so I dunno if it made any difference what I used. 

 

Once I start planting out more, I plan to amend the holes and trenches with Black Kow or cheaper compost and weed scraps and maybe some chicken poop since I read the bananas love it. I'm looking for something that I can apply regularly without burning everything, most of what I've got still constitutes seedling stage. Mostly Sabals, planning to add more bananas, I've got some Trachy hybrid princeps x Waggie and I've got more Waggie x Fortunei sprouts, I'd like to add something for color like maybe more canna or day lillies or some hardy hibiscus - I don't think the crape myrtles need any help 😂 I also plan to be more vigilant with my stink water (fish emulsion/kelp/seaweed/chelated iron) in waterings. I'm tempted to buy some more seeds of smaller Sabal minors and silver saw too. 

 

Arizona's Best is pretty cheap and I do have a lot of clay in my soil. I also see all kinds of stuff on Amazon I've never heard mentioned on here like Palm Strike and Perfect Palm in the buckets, and free buckets are always nice. I'm almost out of Carl Pool, and I think the spikes are fine for pots but not in the ground. 

 

I'm also intrigued by the Greensand that Megatron was grown in (is @buffy still active on here? I'd love to get some seeds from that monster). But there's a lot more sand here than I realized once I started digging holes, and I see myself getting a full body workout aerating the soil and ripping out this grass. 

Also has anybody fermented the weed tea with any success? Supposedly it's fantastic but vomit inducing. 

[ryjohn]

The last week of august I applied a 50-pound bag of lawn “winterizer” fertilizer, roughly 40-0-8 and added a 5 pound bag of epsom salts (magnesium).  It really greened up several of my palms and stimulated growth in the last couple weeks.